


The Chasm

by singing_to_empty_caves



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time
Genre: Gen, Suicide, not graphic though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 10:59:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14975744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singing_to_empty_caves/pseuds/singing_to_empty_caves
Summary: When you've been through as much as a certain hero, it gets to your head; when the world denies you proper care, it ends in disaster.--(Link has a trauma disorder, and nobody bothered to acknowledge it until far too late.)





	The Chasm

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I've never dealt with a major trauma disorder. Please inform me of any errors that may exist in this short work.

There he was, on the edge of the Death Mountain chasm.

It was funny how ironic that name was. With a village at its base and its inside populated with the peaceful Gorons, it was as far from deadly as a mountain could be. He was quite safe, so long as he stayed where he was.

But he saw it so differently. Every waking moment, he remembered the fate that had since been erased. He lived in the future, when dark, fiery clouds danced around its summit. When he, in a body not his own, trekked through the inside of an active volcano. That man who wasn't quite him killed a flaming dragon there, and he was sure the dragon was still there, waiting to jump out at him.

"Volvagia," he mumbled to himself. "Volvagia, I'm gonna kill you..."

He stumbled closer to the edge, drawing his sword in a shaky hand and chasing the images created by the ruins of his mind.

Kakariko on fire. He saw it. The shadow breaking free from the well. Sheik protecting him from the force of the attack. Sheik was Zelda. Zelda was sorry. Zelda put him through all that. Zelda was a Sage. So were his friends.

"Zelda," he muttered.

Zelda screaming. Zelda opening doors. Zelda trapped in the gem above the pipe organ. Ganondorf playing the pipe organ. Ganondorf flying into the air. Ganondorf attacking.

"You won't win, you won't win..."

Link swung at an invisible enemy, the momentum of the poor blow throwing him to his right. Exhaustion was his only feeling.

Ganondorf laughing. The Happy Mask Salesman laughing. The Salesman grabbing him and shaking him. The Salesman with the mask. The Skull Kid with the mask. Majora's mask. Majora.

"Die..."

Masks. So many masks. He was so many people.

"I'm a god..."

When would it end? When could he take off the mask? Stop being the hero, stop doing what other people never could? When could he be just Link?

"I'm a boy..."

Every time he shut his eyes, he saw them. Sometimes they were there around him. He never killed them, they never died. They would haunt him all his life.

"Death..."

Death and blood and laughter. His childhood had been soaked in crimson. There was nothing left but an endless landscape of warring peoples. A vast world of uncertainty.

Tears streaked Link's pink cheeks, marking jagged paths as his uneven breaths sent them astray.

There he was again, hovering above the chasm. Always the "Hero of Time". The not-Link. The fake. Here to taunt him again.

"Are you afraid?" the not-Link asked.

"No, you are," Link answered.

"Do you have nightmares?"

"No, but you do."

The not-Link smiled and shook his head slightly. "But, love, you know that we are the same."

"Yes."

"You are me."

"No, you are me."

"And there is the difference."

The not-Link extended an arm to Link, a peaceful expression on his features as his Hover Boots suspended him a reasonable distance from the cliff. His arm was just long enough to reach a point where Link could grab it... if he reached very hard.

"Join me. Join me in the world of forever," the not-Link requested.

"Will I be safe?" Link asked.

"Yes."

"Will they die?"

"Love, the only thing keeping them here is you."

Link stared into the blue eyes of the man he had once never been.

"I am afraid," the boy admitted, feeling so, so small despite being almost as old as the not-Link by then.

"Haven't you always been?"

Link considered this for a moment.

"They used you," the not-Link continued. "You were little more than a piece in their game. The neverending dance. Evil will never die."

"But I will," Link whispered. "I will die. Always."

"And your purpose is fulfilled," the not-Link concluded. "Your fate is once again in your hands."

Link drew in a breath. He slowly removed his hat, and with a glance at his past future self, dropped it into the chasm.

"I'm not the Hero of Time," Link stated. "Not anymore. They won't have me. They won't make me fight."

The tears continued to fall as the young boy sheathed his sword.

"I don't need any higher powers. All they've done is hurt me," he growled, his head turned upward to the sky. "Do you hear me, goddesses? I deny your prophecy. I deny my foretold purpose!"

"You defy the goddesses?" the elder boy asked. "To declare yourself an equal and break the bands of destiny itself..!"

"I am the Deity. I don't need 'destiny'!" Link exclaimed, eyes flashing a deep red.

"You simply borrowed the Deity."

"And I borrowed my life."

Shakily, Link reached out his hand and grasped the cold, ethereal gauntlets of his stronger form.

One foot left the cliff.

"Easy."

"Hold me tighter," Link demanded quietly.

As his other foot left the cliff, he let the arms of his hallucination wrap around his body.

"You're safe, Link... you're safe... the world of forever awaits..."

**Author's Note:**

> If you think this is bad, wait until I tell you why I wrote it. (The answer involves aliens and interdimensional travel.)


End file.
